While business growth has been robust in the last few years, one of the largest areas of growth in many businesses has been the continuing increase in data handling and storage. With the increase in utilization of large database applications, improved processing power by single- and multiple-processor systems, and migration of multimedia applications into mainstream office tools, businesses and organizations have greatly increased their need for large amounts of storage.
Large volumes of data are only useful if the data can be accessed quickly and reliably. Increased reliability is commonly achieved by usage of redundant elements and by increasing availability. In high-availability applications, data must be constantly available with minimal planned and unplanned downtime. High availability is measured at the system level and quantified as the percentage of time the system is in a state to do useful work.
What is needed is an interface architecture that promotes reliability through usage of redundant, high-availability components.
A multiple-path interface card supports access to multiple buses on a backplane. In one example, a single two-path interface card supplies access to two buses on a backplane and has two connectors. Each connector has an isolated path to each bus on the backplane and termination on the card. Isolation of the connectors allows a user to disconnect cables from one connector without affecting the other connector.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an interface card includes a plurality of data paths with each data path extending from a first connector to a second connector. The second connector couples to a bus backplane. One or more of the data paths include a transceiver that accesses signals in a first bus signaling type, an isolator/converter that mutually isolates the plurality of data paths and that converts signals from the first bus signaling type to a second bus signaling type, and a bridge coupled from a first data path to a second data path of the plurality of data paths. The bridge is capable of controlling communication of signals between the first data path and the second data path.
Various types of data paths include data buses, single serial data lines, and multiple independent serial data lines.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a dual-channel bus controller card includes a first data path extending from a host end to a backplane end and a second data path extending from the host end to the backplane end. The first data path includes a first high density connector coupled to the host end of the first data path, a first transceiver coupled to the first data path adjacent to the first high density connector, a first isolator/converter coupled to the first data path adjacent to the first transceiver, and a first backplane connector coupled to the backplane end of the first data path and adjacent to the first isolator/converter. The second data path includes a second high density connector coupled to the host end of the second data path, a second transceiver coupled to the second data path adjacent to the second high density connector, a second isolator/converter coupled to the second data path adjacent to the second transceiver, and a second backplane connector coupled to the backplane end of the second data path and adjacent to the second isolator/converter.